Google Chrome Now Available for Android!!

I am a bit (!) of a Chrome addict, what with all the speed, and the plugins and the clean UI. I work pretty much exclusively in the cloud at home, so I spend my entire computer time in my browser. I've been experimenting with mobile browsers on my phone and my shiny new Android tablet, trying out the built-in browser, and other offerings including Dolphin, Nightly, and Firefox.

Sadly, all have their shortcomings.

Some are incredibly slow loading on the tablet, others (Nightly!) won't let you cut and paste URLs in the address bar... basically they suck. And given that I'm toying with the idea of going tablet-only at home (the Dude covets my laptop), a good browser is going to be the make or break.

And now there is Chrome. w00t!

Ok, before you run off and download it, there are a few things you should know:

It's beta. Which, frankly, if you are running Android shouldn't bug you since a lot of native Android apps are in beta.

It sometimes hangs, especially if you drop the wifi while loading a page.

It's only for Ice Cream Sandwich. I tried to find it on market using my phone but it wouldn't even pull it up. I could only get it for my tablet. #sadPanda

Um... well that's really about it.

Ok, there's a big one: no Flash. They released it with the intention of adding the latest version of Flash later and then Adobe announced there would be no more mobile Flash support. Doh! I'm sure there will be an update at some point to add support for the last version of Flash, but the chrome guys have some serious work to do to retrofit their browser to work without Flash in the future. Meantime, I switch to another browser when I hit Flash. Although it does play YouTube videos so that's something.

Otherwise, it's running really well for me. It's crazy fast. It can sync your desktop bookmarks and tabs. And, oh, the auto-zoom function: click on a listed item, a radio button, etc and Chrome zooms it in for you so you can be sure to select the right one. Sure, it adds a click but you get what you want every time. Such a simple feature, focused on tablet users.